Now, from my opening volley, you may well get the impression that I am not a supporter of Freudian theory: and you would be mostly right. However, not everything that Freud did was wrong. As I have already stated Freud's Theory of the Universe seems to be right. He believed, -- unlike Plato, the dualist -- that there was just the one universe, that we have only the one existence; and not a duel one. On a more mundane level, certain of his other theories seem to have proven out right, for example, his theory of the stages of infantile sexual development. Likely, too, he was right in his proposition that a substantial part of man, his mind, exists in a state of unconsciousness.

Neurosis, according to Freud, comes about from the frustration of basic instincts, either because of external obstacles or because of internal mental imbalance. Another mental misadaption which Freud describes is repression with the most decisive repressions occurring in earlier childhood, usually of a sexual nature:

"In a situation of extreme mental conflict, where a person experiences an instinctual impulse which is sharply incompatible with the standards he feels he must adhere to, it is possible for him to put it out of consciousness, to flee from it, to pretend that it does not exist. So repression is one of the so-called "defence mechanisms," by which a person attempts to avoid inner conflicts. But it is essentially an escape, a pretence, a withdrawal from reality, and as such is doomed to failure. For what is repressed does not really disappear, but continues to exist in the unconscious portion of the mind. It retains all its instinctual energy, and exerts its influence by sending into consciousness a disguised substitute for itself - a neurotic symptom. Thus the person can find himself behaving in ways which he will admit are irrational, yet which he feels compelled to continue without knowing why. For by repressing something out of his consciousness he has given up effective control over it; he can neither get rid of the symptoms it is causing, nor voluntarily lift the repression and recall it to consciousness." (Leslie Stevenson.)

Freud classified mental activity to exist at three levels: the Id, the Ego, and the Superego. The Id is the centre of our primitive instincts; it is blind and ruthless and caters to the business of gratifying our desires and pleasures; the new born infant is the personification of the Id. The Ego develops out of the Id as the child grows. The Ego is not so inward seeking and recognizes that there does exist a world beyond; the Ego acts as censor to the Id, checking the primitive desires for immediate gratification, recognizing the larger picture, so to speak. Conflict between the Id and the Ego can result in a person having neuroses. The third state is the Superego. The Superego is the highest state at which we have arrived in our evolutionary "progress." The Superego is an overseer, our conscience; and, like the Id, is something of which we are not conscious. Though we are not aware of the struggle, according to Freudian theory, there exists a continuing battle between the Id and the Superego with the Ego in the center trying to keep them apart.

As far as I am concerned, Freudian theories are ready made excuses for every bad actor that comes along; his theories have created great problems for the social fabric. Now, my view of it might well be different if Freudian theory could some how be demonstrated: but it cannot be demonstrated. Scientific theory as may be found in the area of, say chemistry or physics, can be demonstrated; but not so when it comes to psychological theory.
As one facetious critic has said (and I forget who): "For the layman, as Freud's theories spread, he emerged as the greatest killjoy in the history of human thought, transforming man's jokes and gentle pleasures into dreary and mysterious repressions, discovering hatreds at the root of love, malice at the heart of tenderness, incest in filial affections, guilt in generosity, and the repressed hatred of one's father as a normal human inheritance."

5 See Stephen Jay Gould'sAn Urchin in the Storm, p. 214, for a development of Freud's "three great discontinuities."

6 Leslie Stevenson is, or was, a reader in logic and Metaphysics at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland; and, I must say, that I found his little book, Seven Theories of Human Nature (1974) (Oxford University Press, 1987) a most useful work in the earlier stages of my study.

8 Another of Freud's works is Civilization and Its Discontents. This work, published in 1930, was a discussion about the conflicts between the demands of civilized society and the instincts implanted in every person.